Dynamic Holstering System

[Shouki]

     Holstering needs to be reworked in my  opinion. Weapons should have two different holstering spots for example, you can call them Noble and Agile if you wish.

     Let's start with long swords since they happen to be popular topic to dispute. If you were to think of a long sword weapon, you would most likely imagine it being holstered at the hip. I think if some re-worked animations were released, including a brand new drawing and sheathing animation for a Katana/Rapier long sword weapon drawn from the hip, then long swords, even without a fix to stats, can be used for aesthetics if nothing else. Long swords however aren't the only thing that can or should use an alternate holstering spot.

     Bows can have a Noble and Agile holstering spot where the quiver is the only thing that moves for example, Noble means that the posture is straight, which means it makes it easier to draw arrows over the shoulder, while agile is bent over and smaller, which means it would be easier to draw arrows from a quiver placed horizontally at the back of the waist where daggers are normally placed, the arrows pointing to the left or right depending on which hand is being used. 

     Other primary weapons can be placed at the back of the waist for example and thus allowing you to see the model of the weapon at a proper angle instead of them being turned 90 degrees clockwise and sticking out when holstered, this also frees your back in case you have a melee weapon that takes up space there, which eliminates clutter around the back, solving clipping issues with the brand new Syandanas on some frames as well as overlapping with melee weapons. This also allows you to do the exact opposite, should you switch to a melee weapon that has a holster spot at the back of the waist like the Fang, you can still use the original holster spot at the spine to prevent clipping.

     Secondary Throwing weapons and their ammo cache can be placed on the wrists instead for example, like gauntlets, so that you may take the throwing weapons out while keeping your hands in front of you, thus making it more agile, think of it like drawing cards like something out of a card game like Yu-Gi-Oh or drawing the concealed weapons out of the long sleeves of your clothing, though the holsters for Despair are rather large, so perhaps it wouldn't work on the wrists for Despair specifically

     Pistols, or at least singles, can perhaps be moved to the left thigh instead, however, I have seen holsters which go around the waist at the front/back or the shoulders, survival gear type where you have a machete and a pistol strapped close to your upper body like a backpack, for example a pistol in a pocket at the chest. Something you'd expect from Uncharted or Tomb Raider. Pistols are small however which means they can be placed anywhere as long as there's something to keep them in place.

     Melee weapons can have all sorts of different holstering spots depending on where they are placed and what type of weapon or what size the weapons are; different spots can be considered as being different parts of the body like the back, waist, hips, thighs, legs or arms, while the position or how exactly the weapon is holstered to that spot may vary. Many melee weapons can be placed at the hip or waist, daggers can also be fit at the wrists or legs for example. Larger weapons would be harder to fit in unique places but smaller weapons can be placed in creative spots. Larger weapons like Orthos however can be broken down into parts and thus made to "fold" into a smaller shape much like the Glaive, for example if we were to break Orthos in three spots, the upper blade, lower blade and main handle/staff part, then the weapon can be brought together to look smaller when holstered, take up less space and thus make it so it doesn't stick out so much, much like a three section staff.

     All of these different holstering spots and animations to accompany them would most likely take a lot of work, the breaking of an Orthos bladed quarter staff into three parts to fold when holstered and then unfolded when drawn is a lot more work than just simply sticking the full model on the back of a Warframe, but the result in the end is drastically different. If you ignore what your weapon looks like for a moment, forget what a Soma, Supra, Gorgon, Hek, Snipertron, Braton look like for a moment, and even if you don't use those, just pretend you have no weapon model. Now if you examine the animation for these weapons as you spray bullets or lasers or even arrows, you will find that they are fundamentally the same, or at least the fact that you're paying attention to the enemy and not so much the weapon itself, but that can't be helped, guns and bows are weapons that require you to point one end at your target and pull a trigger or the string. A way to break through the inevitable staleness however is to make it more unique, if you can't make the shooting animation more unique, at least you can make other elements more unique such as holstering, reloading and even switching weapons.

     Another thing that feels off is that the weapons themselves are holstered and kept close to the Warframe with an invisible force, I know that the game isn't supposed to be very realistic, but going back and looking at all the holstering animations and making them smoother as well as adding models for straps, strings, pockets, chains and holsters that hold the weapons up would make it feel more believable. If  straps and holsters to hold weapons in place are frowned upon then using the same base for badges and emblems while implying some sort of magnetic force to hold weapons close to the Warframe,  while using particles when weapons are returned to their holstering spots as well, could help provide a viable method of holstering while keeping up with the advanced technology theme, though the weapons would still appear to float.

     The fangs are probably the weapons with the most unique holstering method, so even without a choice between Noble and Agile holstering spots for weapons, if all the weapons had a re-worked, unique holstering animation and holstering spot were properly modeled with as little clipping as possible (for example clipping on the thighs when using Hikou for the majority of frames) then I'm sure people will feel like every weapon is slightly different, special and thus provide more customization without having to really introduce a new system or element into the game like Syandanas or Animation Sets. The way it is now, almost every single primary weapon is in the same spot, almost every single secondary is in the same spot and only a few different weapon types for melee weapons have unique holstering spots, the most over-used one being right in the middle of the back.

     Ninja are sneaky, sly and intelligent, they can even hide weapons in the most ordinary object, which means that unique spots to attach a weapon to the body of a Warframe might not be that strange at all!

     If a dynamic holstering system, and I'm sure DE can create one that is even better than what I could possibly imagine on my own, is implemented, then I am sure it can and  will only help to improve the game-play experience of Warframe and its player base.

Edited September 29, 2013 by Shouki

[Xenrax]

You post is a pain to read with the grey text.  Please reformat it with standard boilerplate text color.  Thank you.

[__Kanade__]

Reformat the text back to default text white or something bright, I have trouble seeing dark colors in front of a darker font, then I'll consider reading what your long post says.

Edited September 27, 2013 by __Kanade__

[Shouki]

I'm not using any formatting.... I haven't used any code to change the colour of the text so....

 

PS: Color commands don't even seem to be working so I have no clue what the problem is. It wasn't on purpose though so I'd appreciate it if you repost it for me or if you read it by highlighting everything with ctrl + A. Thanks

Edited September 29, 2013 by Shouki